Chapter 8 - The deal

Lukas POV

I pushed the exit door and paced outside of Salvatore’s boxing gym.

The tightness of my pants made it unbearable to walk. I tried to reposition my growing bulge, but it did nothing to help.

Why the fuck did I kiss Max like that? Why didn’t she push me away like I thought she would?

When Max left abruptly during our coffee together, I could only think about seeing her again. I had no means of contacting her since the file Jace gave me had almost nothing on her.

When we had tailed her from Mortimer’s bail bonds to her house, then to the boxing studio, I thought it would be another simple job. But when I got in and saw her move, how she fought, and how she carried herself, I knew right then and now that she was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen.

Max was a force of nature. I hadn’t even gone soft with her when we wrangled. She made me work double-time.

The elders in my pack had mentioned that hundreds of years ago, werewolves had destined mates. But as time passed, we lost the ability to have them. In this day and age, some were lucky enough to have powerful feelings when they met their life partners, and I wondered if the possessiveness and the emotions I had when I met Max were a sign I had met my destined mate. All I could see was her.

But why did it have to be Max of all the women?

Something vibrated in my pocket, making me lose my chain of thought, and I pulled up my cell phone. I had three missed calls from Jace.

Shit.

I had to meet him tonight, and I didn’t know what I would report back. I couldn’t tell him what was happening—Max was a job, despite everything I was feeling on the inside.

I was so fucked! I needed this job to be over.

I groaned loudly as I made my way by foot to where Jace had told me to meet.

When I saw his car parked a few blocks away from the gym, I lightly ran and stopped to open the passenger door. He eyed me suspiciously, then cleared his throat.

“Care to explain why you have returned none of my phone calls for the last three hours?”

“Relax, mate. The girl left me at the café, and I tried to find her again. Why are you parked in front of a public parking space?”

“Well, Casanova, after she left you, I trailed her to the police station. She left maybe thirty minutes after, and I followed her here. She hasn’t come down yet.”

I chuckled when I realized Max had given him the slip. I dropped the window down and looked above the multi-level parking area. Sure enough, she must have jumped to the building next to it when she thought she was being followed.

Clever girl.

“You’re wasting your time, buddy. I just met with her back at the boxing gym.”

Jace sighed, annoyed that she had had the better of him.

“Did you find anything useful, at least? I couldn’t get much out of her when I met her yesterday, and I wasn't comfortable hypnotizing her.”

“Umbridge was a contract. Max isn’t in on anything. She just did her job.”

“Wow, you’re already on a first-name basis with her. She must have made quite an impression on you.”

“Oh, fuck off.”

Jace laughed when I punched him in the arm but returned to his serious attitude.

“Do you know why she was able to put one of our men down? I mean, no human could do that.”

“Well, she’s strong and fast. I’ll give you that. She kept me on my toes when we fought on the mat at the boxing gym. But from my initial meeting with her, she appears quite normal, and she’s not a wolf or else I would have smelled it.”

No. Max wasn’t a wolf, but she smelled different from other humans. Many things could have caused it. Thinking back to the smell of her arousal when I gripped her ass and pulled her up on me, my heartbeat accelerated. God, this woman was making me go wild.

“Good work, Lukas. I’ll report this to my father, and we can stop this babysitting business. If she knows nothing, then she’s not a threat. By the way, are you feeling good? You seem tense.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just have a lot on my mind. I recently gained a contract for a construction project, and it’s keeping me up, and you’re no help as well.” I answered with a smirk. I couldn’t tell him the real reason for my behaviour.

Jace feigned a wounded look.

“Ach, don’t lie to me! I’m not blind. That bounty hunter sure is a sweet piece of ass. You enjoyed following a beautiful girl around. You should have seen her when her shirt became see-through. There wasn’t much left for the imagination.”

I didn’t like how he talked about Max, so I inadvertently growled at his comment, which resulted in Jace raising an eyebrow at me.

“Oh, what’s this, now? Do you… like her? You never like anyone!”

Jace’s smile widened when I didn’t reply, showing me his elongated canines.

“Hmm, if you’re not interested, you won’t mind if I see her again, then.”

“Please don’t. We all know what happens to your one-night stands. They wake up with no memory of the night before and a quarter of their blood missing. I took the blame for your last fuck up, but I will not let you do Max that way.”

“Oh, come on, man. Why’d you have to bring Joanna into this conversation? It’s not my fault the man they charged me to follow had a gorgeous babe as a daughter. Plus, she gave me all the information I needed from her old man. I just hadn’t planned on him showing up when I was going down on his daughter.”

I huffed in annoyance and opened the car door. Jace was hard-headed, so my opinion didn’t really matter. I’d just have to keep Max away from him, which shouldn’t be that hard with what happened at Salvatore’s boxing gym. The feeling I had for her was definitely mutual.

“What makes this bounty hunter so unique that you don’t want me near her?”

“Do whatever you feel like doing,” I got out and started walking. “It’s not like what I say matters, anyway.”

Jace rolled the passenger window down and slowly followed me onto the street.

“Get back in the car. It’s a thirty-minute drive from here to your house. You won’t walk all the way home.”

“Watch me.”

Jace pushed on the brakes and waited patiently for me to decide. However, my mind had already been made up. It had been since the moment I left the gym and came to find Jace here.

I sneered when he resumed following me.

“Listen, I get that it’s hard for you to back off, but could you do it this once? For old-time sake?”

My friend tilted his head, but the glint of mischief in his eyes further proved my point that he would not let go that easily.

“I would, but we sort of already made plans to see each other again.”

“I thought you said nothing happened other than she drenched herself with her drink, and you offered to pay for her lunch?”

“Yes, but she has my jacket. She offered to return it to me the next time we meet.” Jace said with a proud smile.

So that was his plan. To force a second meeting with Max. To what end, though, I had no idea.

“You know I can’t resist a mouse playing hard to get. She’s not my type, but for some stupid reason, that huntress has a mysteriousness that makes me want to see her again,” Jace swatted his hand in the air. “It’s hard to explain.”

I knew exactly what he was talking about. I felt the same way. Max was in my mind constantly, and I didn’t want to stop thinking about her, about all the things I would love to do to her.

“Since we are both contemplating pursuing this woman, let’s make an agreement. After this whole thing blows over, which should be relatively soon, we won’t talk about her when we’re with each other, and we are not allowed to sabotage the other’s chances. I don’t want a girl to come in between our friendship. Deal?”

I had this in the bag. I was sure of it.

Although I didn’t like Jace’s proposition, Max would be free to decide which of us she liked best. Jace wasn’t the love-you-long type of guy. He was a playboy who changed toys whenever it suited him, and I didn’t think Max was easy to get. I just hoped she would see that quickly and ditch him the first chance she got.

“Best man gets the girl?” I stuck my hand through the car window for Jace to shake it.

“Agreed.”